Welcome to the Mad in America podcast, a new weekly discussion that searches for the truth about psychiatric prescription drugs and mental health care worldwide.

This podcast is part of Mad in America’s mission to serve as a catalyst for rethinking psychiatric care. We believe that the current drug-based paradigm of care has failed our society and that scientific research, as well as the lived experience of those who have been diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder, calls for profound change.

On the podcast over the coming weeks, we will have interviews with experts and those with lived experience of the psychiatric system.

Thank you for joining us as we discuss the many issues around rethinking psychiatric care around the world.

This week we interview
Elaine who has taken antidepressant and stimulant
drugs for anxiety issues such as OCD. She describes her experiences
with the drugs, how she approached her withdrawal and describes
feeling humiliated and judged by her psychiatrists rather than
helped.

In this episode we
discuss:

How Elaine came to be taking
Prozac for anxiety issues

How she became troubled by
anxious thoughts and fears while in college

That she stopped Prozac cold
turkey after one year of use because she felt it stopped
working

That Elaine then tried a range
of different drugs but with no relief until settling on Zoloft
which also, in time, stopped working

How Elaine was afraid to stop
the drugs in case her symptoms came back and felt that she needed
the drugs

How a family move and motherhood
put such strain on Elaine that she felt that her condition was
deteriorating

That she felt that it was like a
ritual humiliation seeing her doctors

How a nurse practitioner
suggested that Elaine attended an out-patient mental health clinic
and Elaine was shocked at how she was treated, particularly by the
psychiatrist

That the psychiatrist seemed
more interested in compliance rather than progress being
made

How Elaine started to research
for herself and found personal accounts that resonated with her own
experience of trying to stop the drugs

That Elaine was on a stimulant
drug for a short time but that too stopped working

That Elaine is now struggling to
withdraw from 150 milligrams of Effexor by counting her beads to
reduce by approximately 10% per month

Elaine describes electric shock
sensations that feel like a buzzing or tingling

How doctors continue to give out
advice that can be harmful when it comes to withdrawal from
psychiatric drugs, particularly after long term use

How Elaine felt invalidated by
the medical profession because she had a ‘disorder’

How Elaine witnessed a man with
tardive dyskinesia and it was an image that she will never
forget

That Elaine was accused of over
inflating the risks of the drugs because of her anxiety
diagnosis

That people may get short term
symptom relief at the cost long term vitality by taking the
drugs

About the Podcast

Welcome to the Mad in America podcast, a new weekly discussion that searches for the truth about psychiatric prescription drugs and mental health care worldwide.
This podcast is part of Mad in America’s mission to serve as a catalyst for rethinking psychiatric care and mental health. We believe that the current drug-based paradigm of care has failed our society and that scientific research, as well as the lived experience of those who have been diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder, calls for profound change.
On the podcast over the coming weeks, we will have interviews with experts and those with lived experience of the psychiatric system. Thank you for joining us as we discuss the many issues around rethinking mental health around the world.
For more information visit madinamerica.com
To contact us email podcasts@madinamerica.com